Happy 239th birthday America! I love our country, and I know you do too, but I do not like the direction our country is going. We are well past being a Christian nation. As the writer of Judges says, “Everyone did was right in his own eyes” (Judges 21:25). We are a nation adrift morally. There may be dark days ahead for believers and churches. The press of persecution may fall upon us in ways we have never known. 
     Never has there been a greater need for revival and awakening in our great nation. Never has 2 Chronicles 7:14 been more true and more needed. Read again the conditions for awakening and revival to take place:

• “if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”
  

     Revival must begin in the hearts of God’s people. The church must come on bended knee with repentant heart before the Lord. We must seek His face like we have never do so before. God’s promise to us is that He will forgive and heal our land if we turn to Him and seek Him. Would you join me in praying that revival come to your heart and life, and that revival would be experienced by our church. 
     Remember that a single match shines brightest against the blackest of backgrounds. This is the hour for the church to shine by being the salt and light of the world. Sin always produces a crop failure and when people come to the end of themselves in sin, we have the answer to real satisfaction in life and that is Jesus! 
     As the church we must not sink into our corner and sulk, and we neither should we lash out in anger against our perceived enemies. The early church thrived in a culture that was anti-Christian and steeped in sin far more depraved even than ours. We must continue to stand upon the truth of God’s Word. The Bible is our source of authority for faith and practice. 
     In John Bunyan’s classic, Pilgrim’s Progress, the main character Christian and his friend Hopeful must cross a deep river on their journey to the kingdom. The river is deep and, “Christian began to sink, and crying out to his good friend Hopeful, he said, I sink in deep waters; the billows go over my head; all his waves go over me. Selah. Then said the other, Be of good cheer, my brother: I feel the bottom, and it is good.”
     These days may make us feel as believers that the water is over our heads and that we may perish, but I remind you, “I feel the bottom, and it is good.” We stand firm upon the truth of God’s Word. Let your heart be encouraged! The greatest days of the kingdom are ahead!